wood, reproductions of an antique silver applique. Even the steam
radiators are here cleverly concealed by wooden cases made after
Empire designs.

The walls are white and panelled in wood also white.

[Illustration: _Dining-room in Country House, Showing Modern Painted
Furniture. Style Directoire._]


The earliest garments of Egypt were of cotton and hemp, or mallow,
resembling flax. The older Egyptians never knew silks in any form, nor
did the Israelites, nor any of the ancients. The earliest account of
this material is given by Aristotle (fourth century). It was
brought into Western Europe from China, via India, the Red Sea
and Persia, and the first to weave it outside the Orient was a maiden
on the Isle of Cos, off the coast of Asia Minor, producing a thin
gauze-like tissue worn by herself and companions, the material
resembling the Seven Veils of Salome. To-day those tiny bits of gauze
one sees laid in between the leaves of old manuscript to protect the
illuminations, as our publishers use sheets of tissue paper, are said
to be examples of this earliest form of woven silk.

The Romans used silk at first only for their women, as it was
considered not a masculine material, but gradually they adopted it for
the festival robes of men, Titus and Vespasian being among those said
to have worn it.

The first silk looms were set up in the royal palaces of the Roman
kings in the year 533 A.D. The raw material was brought from the East